In response to The Daily Blog…

Martyn “Bomber” Bradbury’s Daily Blog recently posted a report on a memorandum from law firm Franks Ogilvie to The New Zealand Initiative. It appears the memorandum found its way to the Daily Blog following an ACT Party data breach. The memorandum set out the Franks Ogilvie’s views on the constitutional implications of the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill and, in particular, the Mana Whakahono a Rohe: Iwi Participation Arrangements. The Initiative understands the views in the memorandum were widely published elsewhere at the time.

At the Initiative we had our own, but different, concerns about the Bill, and we published an article in our weekly Initiative Matterscolumn in The National Business Review critiquing the aspects of the Bill that required reconsideration. Entitled Dump Nick Smith’s Bill and Start Over,we criticised the provisions of the Bill which sought to formalise council consultation with iwi by forcing councils to enter into non-terminable agreements with iwi. Our concern was that this could lock in arrangements that might prove unworkable in perpetuity.

Unfortunately the politicians did not heed our warning, and the Bill was passed into law. Time will tell whether it adds another layer of bureaucracy to the already convoluted Resource Management Act planning processes.